Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that He came to earth so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God...

This week, we have been looking at an encounter that a traitor tax collector named Levi had with Jesus that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. Wednesday, we looked at the reality that Levi responded to Jesus invitation to follow Him by leaving everything behind and began to follow Jesus.

We looked at the reality that this invitation would have been unheard of by any other Rabbi to call such a man to follow him as a student. What would have been viewed as being strange or odd would be why Jesus would want such a person like Levi around Him as His disciple. What would have been strange or odd would be that Jesus would want to hang out with a traitor like Levi.

We looked at the reality that there was something about Jesus that made people who were far from God comfortable enough to hang out with Son of God. Levi and his tax collector and sinner friends hung out with Jesus at a dinner party that Levi had so that his friends could meet and hang out with Jesus.

We looked on as another group of people, called the Pharisees, who were the self righteous religious leaders of the day, responded to Jesus invitation by grumbling and murmuring under their breath in disapproval. These self righteous religious leaders responded to what they were seeing by disengaging.

We talked about the reality that while those who were far from God felt comfortable hanging out with the Son of God, those who thought that they were close to God often felt totally uncomfortable hanging out with the Son of God. Jesus made insiders feel like outsiders while making outsiders feel like insiders when it came to how He related and engaged them.

Today, we see Jesus respond to the conversation that he overheard between His disciples and the Pharisees with a timeless reality about what happens when we encounter Jesus, which we see in Luke 5:31:

 And Jesus answered and said to them, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

Jesus responded to the self righteous religious people of His day and their criticism with a metaphor to explain his actions; "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick”. You see, a physician, whose whole purpose is to cure physical ailments, does not spend a lot of time while he is at work seeing healthy people.

And we intuitively know this to be true, don’t we? I mean, you usually do not go to the doctor because you want to, do you? You usually don’t say “I know what I’ll do today; I like going to the doctor so much that I’ll make an appointment to go today, even though I am healthy”. No, almost always, we go to the doctor because we have to. We have to go because we are ill, or have been ill, or need a check up to prove we are not ill.

Jesus then takes this metaphor and applies it to his actions and to the Pharisees religious lack of action when it came to those who were far from God. Jesus explains that just like a physician, His focus was on those who were far from God and who were separated from Him. When Jesus states that He did not come to call the righteous, He is revealing for us the reality that Jesus did not come to invite those who are right before God.

Instead Jesus states that He came to earth to call sinners. Jesus entered into humanity to call those who were far from God and were outsiders back to God. You see, Jesus did not enter into humanity to see those who were insiders and who were close to Him; Jesus entered into humanity to rescue those who were outsiders and who were furthest from Him.

Jesus entered into humanity to invite those who were far from God to repentance, In other words, Jesus entered into humanity to invite those who were far from God to respond to His invitation to experience forgiveness and a relationship with Him to change the trajectory of their lives that was moving away from Him back towards Him. 

Because it is here, in this event from history from the life of Jesus involving a traitor tax collector, that we see revealed for us a timeless truth that can occur when we encounter Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that He came to earth so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God.

Just as it was for Levi the tax collector, just as it has been for humanity throughout history, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that He came to earth so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God. Encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that Jesus is comfortable hanging out with those who are far from God while making self righteous religious people who think they are close to God but judge those who are far from God very uncomfortable.

Just as it was for Levi, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that Jesus invites those who are far from God to change the trajectory of their lives that is moving away from Him back toward Him so as to follow Him. Just as it was for Levi, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that Jesus came to earth to rescue those who were outsiders and who were furthest from Him. And just as it was for the traitor Levi, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that Jesus came to earth to provide an opportunity for the traitor race of humanity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for.  Traitors like me. Traitors like you.

So here is a question to consider: if you were to find yourself in the event from history, who would you be? Or better yet, if those who knew you best were to put you into this event from history, who would they so you would be?

Would you be Levi? Would you be one of the tax collectors or sinners who were outsider who were far from God? Or would you be one of the Pharisees, the self righteous religious person who thinks they are insiders when it comes to God? If you were to find yourself in the event from history, who would you be?

And are you responding to Jesus and His challenge to see that He came to earth so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God? How are you responding to Jesus and His challenge to see that He entered into humanity to invite those who were far from God to respond to His invitation to experience forgiveness and a relationship with Him to change the trajectory of their lives that was moving away from Him back towards Him?

Because, as we see from Levi’s encounter with Jesus, encountering Jesus will challenge us to see that He came to earth so that He could bring those who were far from God back to God.